BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF ALBERT HENRY SMYTH 



By JOSEPH G. ROSfcNGARTEN 



Reprinteil from 

Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 

Vol. XLVI. 1907 



m 



b,,?.l.*b>JjfysW 















BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF ALBERT HENRY SMYTH. 

By JOSEPH G. ROSENGARTEN. 

(Read May 17, 1907.) 

Albert Henry Smyth was elected a member of the American 
Philosophical Society on May 20, 1887. He has been continuously 
active and useful in it. At the request of the President this brief 
statement of Professor Smyth's life and work is presented in ac- 
cordance with our custom. 

He was born in Philadelphia on June 18, 1863, and was educated 
at the George G. Meade Public School, graduated in the June '82 
class of the Philadelphia High School, was the valedictorian, and 
encouraged by the then President TJr. Riche and Professor Taylor, 
later President, went to Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, where 
he received a Master of Arts degree " causa honoris," in 1886, — it 
was his thesis for his M.A. degree, " Shakespeare's Pericles and 
Apollonius of Tyre." that rewritten and with large additions, he 
read before this Society. It is printed in our Proceedings, and 
earned praise for its research on a recondite subject. 

His services to this Society were constant and valuable, — he 
was one of its curators, a member of the Library Committee, repre- 
sented it at the University of Glasgow on its forty-fifth anniversary, 
and at the dedication in Paris of the Statue of Franklin, the gift 
of John H. Harjes, a former resident of this city, — on that occasion 
too by the appointment of the President of the United States, he 
was the representative of this country, and his address received the 
well deserved praise of all his auditors and readers, among them 
many of the foremost representatives of French eloquence and 
learning. His addresses at the annual celebration of this Society 
were always noteworthy, and his last appearance at the general 
meeting in April of this year, shortly before his untimely death, was 
warmly welcomed. 

His printed works include a sketch of " American Literature," 
Reprinted from Proceedings American Philosophical Society, Vol. xlvi., rgoj. 



ii ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. [May 27. 

published in 1888; "Philadelphia Magazines and Their Contribu- 
tors," 1892 ; " Bayard Taylor " in " American Men of Letters " 
series, 1896; " Shakespeare's Pericles and Apollonius of Tyre," 1898. 
He was the founder and editor of " Shakesperiana," and was 
thoroughly imbued with knowledge and love of the great dramatist ; 
he edited " Burke's Letter to a Noble Lord," 1898, and " Pope's 
Homer's Iliad," 1899, and he was a frequent contributor to maga- 
zines and newspapers. His papers were like his popular lectures, 
for some years, notably about Shakespeare's country, with which 
he was intimate from frequent pilgrimages, often in the companion- 
ship of English men of letters whose friendship and sympathy he 
enjoyed to a degree rare indeed for a man of his age, — he was as 
much at home among scholars abroad as at home. 

His greatest service to this Society, to the public, and to the fame 
of our founder, was his ten volume edition of the " Works and 
Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin," only recently completed. 
It was a great task and it was carried through with characteristic 
industry, devotion and critical ability. He was largely inspired to 
this undertaking by his familiarity with the unrivalled collection of 
Franklin Papers, over seventy folio volumes, long in the possession 
of this Society. He atoned for the careless editing of Franklin's 
Works by Wm. Temple Franklin, — he corrected the errors and 
restored the real words of Franklin, so frequently altered in Sparks' 
edition, and he made large and valuable additions to Bigelow's, and 
that venerable and learned master of Franklin literature generously 
and heartily commended his young successor's work. 

Professor Smyth had in contemplation at the time of his too 
early death, a popular Life of Franklin, and a Life of Washington, 
and historical students may well regret that his life was not spared 
for the accomplishment of these tasks. 

Elected in 1886 Professor of English Language and Literature 
in the Central High School of Philadelphia, he showed remarkable 
gifts for his task, and won the affection and admiration alike of his 
colleagues and his pupils. He was constantly helping the students 
who showed ability, and encouraged them in securing admission to 
Colleges and Universities, or positions, where many of them gained 
marked distinction. His popularity with the large body of stu- 



19 ° 7 ' ] ROSENGARTEiN -ALBER1 HENRY SMITH. iii 

dents of the High School was an unusual tribute to his ability his 
industry and his broad and generous sympathy with all who shard 
Ins love of study. 

His "Shakespeare's Pericles and Apollonius of Tyre," a study 
in Comparative Literature, was the outcome of his Mms Hopkins 
thesis for his M.A. degree,-recasl and expanded, i, was read b 
the American Philosophical Society and was printed in volume 
thirty-seven of its Proceedings. Reprinted in [898, it obtained 
great praise from competent Shakespearean critics at home and 
abroad, and it is a monument of his learning and critical ability 
As he said in reply to some verbal criticism of his frequent use of 
Shakespearean words and phrases, " A student's nature is soon sub- 
dued to what it works in. like the dyer's hand, and 1 have worked 
in Shakespeare, steeping myself in his language, until unconsciously 
I use words and phrases which are. to me, rich in suggestion and 
association." and he made good use of his mastery of Shakespere. 

His great work was his " Writings of Franklin." It was the 
most effective and important tribute to Franklin's Bicentenary, 
so well celebrated by this and kindred societies, founded by Frank- 
lin and of which he was a member. The ten volumes of Franklin 
will be a lasting monument of Professor Smyth's industry, research 
and critical acumen. He unearthed new material at 1 
abroad to the extent of three hundred and eighty-five letters and 
forty papers all from Franklin's pen, and not printed by any 
previous editor; he corrected more than two thousand errors 
in earlier editions, and restored the text so much altered by 
Sparks in his mistaken notion f improving Franklin's racy and 
vigorous English. He found new material in public and private 
collections, in that recently acquired by the Library of the University 
of Pennsylvania, as a tribute to its great founder, and in public 
archives at home and abroad, and in the collections never before 
consulted by any editor of Franklin's writings, lie gave a full ac- 
count of the Franklin Papers, rescued from neglecl and now rever- 
ently preserved in the Library of die American Philosophical 
ciety, in the Congressional Library, and in that of tin- I'm 
Pennsylvania. He gave a bibliography of the printed editions of 
Franklin's Writings, an analysis "i his works, philosophical, politi- 
que. AMER. run. OC, .['.!. 1N5M, PRINTED MIY 16, 1907. 



iv ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. [May 17 

cal and economical, of his satires and bagatelles and of his multi- 
farious correspondence. With all his zeal and admiration for Frank- 
lin, and his ability in so many directions, scientific, economic, poli- 
tical, diplomatic, financial and social, Professor Smyth put a proper 
limit and restriction upon the reproduction of some of Franklin's 
writings, as unfitted for the public of today, and of some public 
papers wrongly attributed to Franklin or that have lost their 
value and interest. What he gives shows Franklin at his best, and 
justifies that admiration of him as a man and a philosopher, as a 
statesman and a diplomatist, which has made Franklin's fame world 
wide. 

Smyth's Franklin is a work of great and lasting value, it is the 
definitive edition of his writings, for the editor gave to it the best 
results of modern literary canons as to the right way to edit the 
writings of so marked and individual a man as Franklin. In these 
davs of sound historical methods, and in absolute adhesion to the 
fixed rule to give the words of the original text of letters and other 
writings, Professor Smyth edited Franklin's Writings, with a 
fidelity that commends his edition to all students. The Index, that 
trying test for all editors, is so complete and exhaustive that an 
inquirer can easily find every item of Franklin's multifarious writ- 
ings under subject, place, correspondent or other proper heading. 
Professor Smyth unburied the earliest of Franklin's writings, the 
newspaper articles which first revealed his remarkable ability, fol- 
lowed his many notable publications, illuminated his widely scattered 
correspondence by judicious notes, compressing in many of them in 
a few lines, the result of many and far reaching investigations. 
He showed critical care alike in exclusion, inclusion and explana- 
tion. 

His " Life of Franklin " was all too short, and he had planned 
to use his large knowledge in the preparation of a Life of Franklin, 
free from the restraint of space prescribed by the publishers of his 
" Franklin's Writings," and in it he would have used that intimate 
knowledge of Franklin which he showed in frequent addresses, in 
some magazine articles, and in lectures, and particularly in his 
masterly and eloquent oration on the unveiling of the statue of 
Franklin in Paris, the work of . a Philadelphia artist, Boyle, the 



i 9 o 7 ] ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. v 

gift of an old resident of Philadelphia, Mr. John 11. liar 
on April 27. 1906. in die Trocadero. In the presence of a great 
audience, Professor Smyth added to Ins reputation bj an oration 
on Franklin that won the plaudits of the foremost French men 
gathered together to honor Franklin's memory. That he w 
by President Roosevelt to make the address of presentatioi 
the Franklin statue, was another tribute to his successful work as 
the editor of "Franklin's Writings," and brought home to French 
statesmen and men of letters, the wisdom of the choice made by 
President Roosevelt, himself an historian well qualified to select 
the best man. 

Professor Smyth had a legion of admirers abroad, — he made 
almost annual pilgrimages to great historical shrines, and had 
hosts of friends among the I I men of letters in Great 

Britain, in Germany and in France, — he had found sympathetic 
fellow students in Russia and Poland, in Greece and Italy. He 
knew Stratford on Avon as he knew Shakespeare, thoroughly, and 
in London literary clubs, in the great Lihraries of London and the 
English Universities, in Paris and Berlin, lie was a familiar vi 
known as a sound student, and welcomed for his many and varied 
gifts; alike in speech and familiar letters he showed his mastery of 
English literature, and in his many lectures, his wonderful memory 
was always helpful to his great gift of eloquence. 

As a lecturer in University Extension and Free Library con 
and on other occasions, he was heard by thousands, and always 
with delight and instruction. Under the pressure of the hard work 
on his ten volume Franklin, he was obliged to curtail his lectures, 
but in the few given by him during the last winter, he seemed to 
find relaxation from his Franklin and from his High School work. 
in delightful lectures on the literature and the literary men and 
shrines with which he was so familiar. Gifted with a line presence 
and an admirable voice, his lectures were a source of infinite pleasure 
and of much solid instruction. 

He gave to the Philosophical Society two capital memorial ad- 
dresses, one on Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, the other on Henry Phillips, 
Jr., both scholars and men who had given much of their best work 
to this Societv, and Professor Smyth's tributes were well worthy 



Vi ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. [May i 7 

of the subjects. His many avocations were always so arranged as 
to allow him to be a frequent attendant at the meetings of the 
Society and its committees ; his share in its annual meetings was 
an active one, and all who heard his brief, incisive, witty and well 
turned addresses in introducing the speakers at its last Annual 
Dinner, felt that the death of such a man at the age of forty-three, 
was indeed a great loss and a lasting sorrow. 

That such a man as Albert Smyth, with his vigor and outspoken 
courage, should have enemies was natural, and" to their discredit 
rather than to his, for he outlived the attacks made upon him, and 
showed that there was little or no foundation for them, by the 
amount and excellence of his work, by the appreciation of his col- 
leagues and pupils at the High School, and by the admiration of 
all who were associated with him in his many fields of activity. 
Life seemed just bringing him the best fruits of his laborious 
youth, — he was asked by Publishers to undertake more literary 
work, and with each year this became easier to him, for his large 
store of learning was always at his call. One of our great Uni- 
versities was about to call him to succeed a well recognized leader 
in history and literature, another was about to confer on him a 
degree of LL.D., and it was thought that he might well have the 
offer as one of the professorial American representatives in a great 
German University. His only doubt was as to giving up teaching 
and lecturing to enable him to devote himself to authorship, — but 
the end came suddenly, and now we have only his literary remains, 
and the recollection of a personality that attracted all who came 
within its reach. Wit, eloquence, learning, many unusual gifts con- 
centrated in him. 

His early youth up to manhood was one of much hardship and 
struggle, but he was never embittered by his hard experience of 
poverty, nor was he spoiled by the success of his mature years 
and the praise that came with it. He never forgot any kindness 
or help shown to him in his hours of trial, — and he was always 
watchful and helpful of the young men who came under his obser- 
vation, — to them he repaid in abundant measure, all and much more 
than all of the help that had benefited him. This was the truest 
test and proof of the sound manliness of his character, and this it 



igo 7 .l ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. vii 

was, quite as much as admiration for his gifts and talents and the 
good use he made of them, that made him hosts of friends and en- 
deared him to them. 

Mr. John Bigelow, the leading authority on Franklin and the man 
who rescued the original MS. of the famous Autobiography from 
oblivion, wrote of Professor Smyth's Franklin, "The develop- 
ment of the scientific side of Franklin will be new to the general 
reader, and the lack of it was perhaps the most conspicuous de- 
ficiency of all previous collections," and again on the completion 
of the work, " Your collection of the literary remains of Franklin 
constitutes in my judgment one of the most faithful, conscientious 
and thorough pieces of editorial work with which our literature has 
been enriched. It places the crown of glory upon the fame of 
Franklin which no one will ever dare or desire to displace." Such 
praise from such a man as John Bigelow. himself the foremost 
exponent of Franklin literature, was indeed grateful. 

Of all the many and touching obituary notices of Professor 
Smyth, the most eloquent was that of William Winter, in the New 
York Tribune of May fifth, the day after Professor Smyth's death. 
Winter himself is a Shakespearian scholar, a poet and a man of 
letters, — he had great sympathy with his younger brother in litera- 
ture, and it is admirably shown in his biographical and critical 
sketch. I am sure it will be welcomed by all who knew Professor 
Smyth and admired his gifts. 

"Albert Henry Smyth.' 

" One of the noblest minds, one of the gentlest spirits, one of die 
most auspicious lives in American literature, passes from this world, 
in the death of Albert Henry Smyth, which befell yesterday morn- 
ing in Philadelphia. To those who intimately knew him the news 
of this sudden bereavement brings with it a shock so dreadful as 
almost to paralvze thought and make any sort of commemorative 
word impossible. He was in the prime of life: he was in the 
affluence of enjovment and hope: he had just completed and pub- 
lished his superb edition of the works of Franklin, together with 
his Life of that statesman: the echoes of his oratorical triumph at 
Paris where he spoke, at the international unveiling of the statue 
of the great philosopher, had not died away: he had gained an un- 

1 New York Daily Tribune, Sunday, May 5. i<K>7- -' n ' 1 Edtton. 



viii ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. [May 17 

fading laurel of fame : he was surrounded with affectionate friends : 
he was richly honored : he was dearly loved : and the pathway to 
yet more splendid achievements in letters and a yet wider circle 
and ampler wealth of friends and of honors seemed opening before 
him, in one long vista of golden promise. His vitality, alike of 
body and mind, was so extraordinary that no thought of death could 
ever be associated with him. He seemed formed to lead battalions 
of thought and to endure forever. His countenance was the beacon 
light of hope and joy. He animated every mind with which he 
came in contact. He dissipated all doubts of a glorious future, 
and he dispelled all dejection. He was a ripe and thorough scholar, 
and he used his scholarship to cheer the onward march, and not 
to dispense gloom. He was a natural orator. He possessed a 
wonderful memory, and it was richly stored with knowledge of the 
classic literature of all lands. It is doubtful whether, in this re- 
spect, his equal exists among American men of letters. He was 
a reverent student of Shakespeare, and he was entirely competent 
as a Shakespeare scholar. Among his works there is a most ad- 
mirable book on " Pericles and Apollonius." He wrote a life of 
" Bayard Taylor " and a charming book upon the magazines of 
Philadelphia and the literary movement in that old city — which he 
so much loved and in which he will be so deeply mourned and so 
tenderly remembered. His ambition was to excel in learning and 
to augment the excellence of American literature. He always 
advocated the right. He abhorred and denounced all the " crank " 
movements of the day, and all the efforts now in progress to corrupt 
the pure stream of literature with erotic mush. In one word, he 
was all that is meant by gentleman. Our society can ill afford to 
lose such a man as Albert Henry Smyth. Intellectual men find 
the strife of this world very hard, advocating that which is right, 
but the best that any thinking worker can do is to follow in his 
footsteps. The loss of him is unspeakable — but his example 
remains. 

" W. W." 



1907. 1 rosengarten albert henry smith. i\ 

Some of the Si ■ Smyth' 

As characteristic oi the width and breadth of his studies, the 
following list will show how far reaching were his lectures, the 

fruit of much reading and study. 

Franklin; Pepys; Thos. Love Peacock; Modern Polish Litera- 
ture; Modern Symbolists; American Literature; English Literature; 
Shakespeare; Shakespeare Readings; Hums and Scott; The Lake 
School and Country; Nineteenth Centurj Authors; Literary .Me- 
morials of Philadelphia; Irving and Cooper; Hawthorne and Poe; 
Whittier; The Argonauts of '49; Lowell ; The Laud of Shakespeare; 
Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, illustrated by an exposition of 
the construction of the Merchant of Venice and Midsummer Night's 
Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. 

American Literature: — The Colonial Period; The Revolutionary 
Period; Washington Irving and the New York Writers; Emerson 
and the awakening of New England; Hawthorne and Poe; Lowell 
and American Culture; Burns, Scott and the Lake Poets; Bayard 
Taylor; The Land of Burns and Scott; Wordsworth: Coleridge; 
Southey, Wilson and De Quincey, Harriet Martineau, the Arnolds, 
Ruskin and Wm. Watson. 

English Literature from Shakespeare to Tennyson; Byron, 
Shelley, Tennyson, Meredith. Hardy, Kipling. 

This is but part of the lecture courses given by Professor Smyth 
from 1890 to 1907, and not only in Philadelphia and its neighbor- 
hood, but in many distant localities. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ALBERT HENRY SMYTH. 

Bayard Taylor. (American men of letters.) 1896. 

Philadelphia Magazines and Their Contributors. [892, 

Shakespeare's Pericles and Apollonius of Tyre, a Study in Comparative 
Literature. 1898. 

Syllabus of a Course of Six Lectures on American Literature. (Ameri- 
can Society for the Extension of University Teaching.) University 
extension lectures, syllabi. [890-96. Ser. A. V 

Syllabus of a Course of Six Lectures on Bayard Taylor and his Friends. 
(American Society for the Extension of University Teaching.) Uni- 
versity extension lectures syllabi. 1800-96. Ser. D. 

Syllabus of a Course of Six Lectures on English Literature. (Ameri- 
can Society for the Extension of University Teaching.) University ex- 
tension lectures, syllabi. 1890-96. Ser. A. 



ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. [May i 7 

Obituary Notice of Henry Phillips, Jr. (Proceedings of American Philo- 
sophical Soc, Memorial Volume i, p. 26-35.) 

Franklin, Benjamin, Writings. 10 v. 1905-07. Macmillan, N. Y. 

American Literature. Philadelphia (Eldredge), 1889. 

Pope's Homer's Iliad. 1899. Macmillan, New York. 

Burke's Letter to a Noble Lord. 1898. Ginn and Co., Boston. 

Syllabus of a course of six lectures on Shakespeare. (American So- 
ciety for the Extension of University Teaching. University extension 
lectures, syllabi 1897-98.) 

Halliwell-Phillipps Collection: An Address delivered before the Penn- 
sylvania Library Club, January, 1895 in Pennsylvania Library Club 
occasional papers, No. 2. 1894 — to date. (Free Library of Phila- 
delphia.) 

Benjamin Franklin: — An oration delivered in Paris April 27, 1906 — on 
" Bi-Centenary of the Birth of Benjamin Franklin." Paris 1906. 

Daniel G. Brinton : — An address — delivered before the American Phil- 
osophical Society. Jan. 16, 1900. (Proceedings of American Philo- 
sophical Society Memorial Vol. I., pp. 221, etc.) 

A " Franklin's Autobiography " with notes was Professor Smyth's last 
piece of work, — it is to be published in the Gateway Series edited by 
Henry Van Dyke. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



016 225 804 7# 



